Review: Oz Reimagined Edited by John Joseph Adams

Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond on February 26 2013 Pages: 365 Format: eBook Goodreads

When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, bestselling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Seanan McGuire to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans—and, really, any reader with an appetite for richly imagined worlds.

Stories include: Seanan McGuire’s “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dst to Dust” finds Dorothy grown up, bitter, and still living in Oz. And she has a murder to solve—assuming Ozma will stop interfering with her life long enough to let her do her job. In “Blown Away,” Jane Yolen asks: What if Toto was dead and stuffed, Ozma was a circus freak, and everything you thought you knew as Oz was really right here in Kansas? “The Cobbler of Oz” by Jonathan Maberry explores a Winged Monkey with wings too small to let her fly. Her only chance to change that rests with the Silver Slippers. In Tad Williams’s futuristic “The Boy Detective of Oz,” Orlando investigates the corrupt Oz simulation of the Otherland network. Frank Baum’s son has the real experiences that his father later fictionalized in Orson Scott Card’s “Off to See the Emperor.”

Some stories are dystopian... Some are dreamlike... All are undeniably Oz.

I think I burned myself out on Oz with this. I was reading these short stories interchanged with the actual 1st Oz book by Frank Baum. I got about halfway through this collection before I had to put it down for something else. Not because I didn’t like it, but just because I was on Oz Overload (or O², if you wish).

I particularly liked Seanen McGuire’s story in this, which was the whole reason I picked up the collection. Tad William’s futuristic, cyberpunk version of Oz was also enjoyable. I’m afraid I don’t have much to say about this right now… I do plan to pick up and read the rest of the stories at some point, but since this is a NetGalley read, I need to do a review sooner rather than later.

I’ve enjoyed anthologies edited by John Joseph Adams far more than a lot of others I’ve picked up, so if you’re an Oz fan, you really can’t go wrong picking this up and giving it a try. There’s plenty here to catch your fancy: from dystopian, cyberpunk, or gritty urban fantasy types to the more traditional whimsy of the original Oz.